Christian

When I was in high school, at Christmas time, I'd take Christmas gifts and reply, "Thank you for sharing your religious holiday with me. As a matter of respect for your beliefs, I will accept this gift. Unfortunately, I do not participate in your religion, so I cannot return the favour." :lol:

"I'm no Christian "

Nope, you're sure not!

"it makes no sense for me to observe a Christian festival"

Everybody should observe the Christian festival! I want you all to throw me one!

"And Christian shall be my pet."

:D

"erm...if you were a woman you would understand the Holy Grail that is Achieving Thinner Thighs."

Ah, but what you may not realize is that many of us guys enjoy meaty thighs!

"I'd only tolerate Bendis on HB if it was the ONLY title he was writing. He's stretched himself WAY too thin these days, and it shows in his work."

You're right about Bendis' current work.

But, Even if Bendis were writing solely "Hellblazer", I don't think he could cut it. He's never shown me he could handle a book like "Hellblazer" or a character like John Constantine. He's a damn good superhero writer, no doubt. "Alias" is the only non-superhero book he's handled, and he handled it well with his hip, trendy dialogue style, and that worked wonders with Jessica Drew, but won't cut it with J.C. Besides which, "Alias" could only marginally be called a non-superhero book anyway.

"Again, I think you just haven't read enough Spider-writers over the years. Like I said, Jenkins had a very enjoyable run, but none of what he did was new. Plenty of writers, Stern and Conway included, went far beyond the the brief life Stan Lee gave Uncle Ben."

Well, it's funny that you say I haven't read enough Spider Man, as I've read the entire "Amazing Spider Man" run (as my cousin collects Amazing, and has nearly a complete run, I read the rest in "Essential" format), I collected "Spider Man" and "Spectacular Spider Man" through both series, even though I couldn't stand the writing most of the time, I'm anal and keep buying titles that I have complete runs of. I've also read the wonderful "Untold Tales of Spidey" by Busiek and "Spider Man's Tangled Web".

So, besides a few series here and there that most fans agree were crap to begin with, I've read just about all the Spider-titles possible.

I realize a lot of Spider-fans absolutely adore Roger Stern's run, but I just never saw anything special in his writing. It was good superhero fare, nothing more.

Conway can be called a very influential Spider-writer because of many of the plots he introduced, but Gerry Conway's writing bores me to tears!

"like why not Mark Millar or Brian Michael Bendis or a writer who is well known, and can produce the goods."

I seriously doubt Millar would attract that many new readers to "Hellblazer". He isn't one of the biggest names in comics, and I also wonder why you think that Millar always delivers the goods? I would see Millar's run as being very similar to Ennis'.

Bendis I have absolutely no faith in anymore. Besides the fact that it'd be impossible since he has an exclusive contract with Marvel, Bendis has been a pale shell of his former self for years now. His "Alias", "Powers", and first 50 issues of D.D. were indeed magnificent, but that's not the Bendis I see anymore. Plus, I think it'd be highly questionable what he could do on a book like "Hellblazer".

I think Vertigo should be about taking chances, instead of pandering to the same readership as Marvel Comics (not that there's anything wrong with Marvel's policy, but Vertigo should be a different breed).

I think at this point H.B. is pretty much the perfect place for untested comic writers. The book has been around for over 200 issues, so many plots have already been used with the book, and H.B. has pretty well a time-tested core readership who are loyal to Constantine. The book won't be lasting forever.

How does the film do this?

I haven't read "Ultimate Spider Man", but that's a seperate universe where Peter's life took a bit of a different path, so it doesn't count.

Uncle Ben was already dead by the end of "Amazing Fantasy" #15 in the Marvel U.

"He fleshed out the character more, and did do it well, but it wasn't much of a stretch from the saintly ol' Ben that's been propped up all of these years."

I don't think it continuted to make him saintly, as much as human. God, remember the Uncle Ben and Peter Parker go to the baseball games story? That hit pretty damn close to home for me.

And Jenkins final issue of "Spectacular Spider Man" had me in tears.

Think about this, Spider Man has been around for 40 years. Uncle Ben died in the very first Spidey story, and it took until Jenkins (after ALL these other writers) to bother to actually make Uncle Ben something other than a neboulous symbol.

"Because he's almost as boring as Jamie Delano. "

All right, quit fucking with me!

Yep, they finally revealed the third Summers brother.

They never said it was Adam X (who the hell is Adam X anyway?! He popped up in one issue of X-Men and I had no idea who he was and never saw him again!), he was just a red herring.

I figured it was probably Gambit, but had no idea they'd drag up the old clone of Mr. Sinister using Cyclops' DNA card....

Does that even make sense? Wasn't Sinister's obsession with the Summers' brothers always that their DNA was the only genes he didn't own a copy of? So, how could he use Cyclops' DNA to clone Gambit in the past?!

I absolutely hated the whole Mojo stuff. I can't figure out if I hate the Mojo stuff or Bishop's future stuff more. Both are the absolute low point of X-continuity.

Most of these voter campaigns are non-partisan, and as far as I know, all the ones broadcast through the media like Question is addressing (MTV, etc.) are non-partisan.

Remember, "it doesn't matter if you vote for Republicans or Democrats. That's not what it's about. Just vote!"

They don't really care who you vote for because it's not going to change the status quo.

So, to quote myself:

But, of course, if no one cares to vote (especially The Future) anymore in a Democracy, obviously this is showing that there are major signs of decay in the very infrastructure of your society, so if you don't want to admit that Capitalism has created a society of soulless, money grubbing clones with mental issues you need to attempt to cajole the youth into voting and thinking that politics can change their lives....

.....thereby showing that yes indeed, there is still a strong Democracy, because you see how many youth voters turned out to vote for Mr. I'm Sucking G.E.'s Cock!

Think about this, everyone is always saying that "voting is the greatest privelege in a Democracy". I reply, what the fuck?! Going to the polls once every few years and choosing some hand-picked candidate is the heights of Democracy?! Damn!

Not only that, but many of these same people, whenever someone speaks out against America claim that these protesters are "taking advantage of the freedoms offered them in a Democracy".

So, picking some guy to run a country and then shutting up has become the model for what passes for "Democracy" now? We've got a hell of a lot more problems than voter apathy, my friends!

"So damn cute. (look down) "

OK, I'm looking down....I see something long and hard....but nothing cute.

I'd send her out on the street with a piece of moldy cheese and maybe a "have a nice holiday".

....Do you think maybe this is why I have no friends? :icon_cry:

Yeah, I certainly don't think he's the best "Hellblazer" writer, as I got bored by a heck of a lot of his stories, and his supporting cast was a complete joke, but amidst the dull stories there were sprinkled some of the best "Hellblazer" storie, and I loved his characterization of John.

His run on "Spectacular Spider Man" wasn't that good, and I blame it on the editors forcing him to write for the Trades.

His stand-alone stories on Spectacular were still a thing of genius.

Claremont introduced Gambit. He was originally one of Claremont's lame attempts toward the end of his run to attempt to make the X-Men seem "totally rad" to teenagers (Jubilee was another).

I think it was 1989.

I actually hated Gambit with a passion when he was first introduced also. It wasn't until Scott Lobdell gave him an actual personality that I started to like him,

Actually for such a pedantic reader of the X-Men as myself, I can mark the actual issue that things began to go fastly south for the X-books. It was "Uncanny X-Men" #256 (introducing the new bimboized Psylocke).

Claremont started to get weird about 20 issues before this (as if he had stopped sleeping at that point), but the issues are still very much readable, just usually bizarre. It wasn't until #256 that you began to go, "Why won't Claremont just leave the book!".

"I want

thinner thighs"

This is just wrong!

I still don't believe she's as old as she claims she is either.

One of our very own seems to get no respect around here.

This man actually wrote a readable "Spawn", he made "Spider Man" interesting again for the first time since before the Clone Saga, he wrote our beloved John Constantine making such status quo changing revelations as the resolution of the Astra plot, and he wrote one of the best Marvel series ever with "Inhumans".

Yet, no one seems to ever rave about Paul Jenkins around here.

"His Spider Man was ok", "his Hellblazer was mediocre", "his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn't very collectible", "Who the bloody hell is Paul Jenkins?!".

Why no Jenkins love?

"I love the smell of absurd hyperbole in the morning. Smells like...victory."

You may say that now, but wait until the next Wizard Top 50 Comic Stories Ever event.

3.Dark Knight Returns

2.Watchmen

1.Hellblazer:All His Engines-We never thought anything would knock Watchmen off the top stop, but comic readers are all saying, "Alan Moore, who? We want Carey!" Yes, this story truly is as good as anything by Joyce, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, or Hemingway. It's your #1 comic story of all time!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Jenkins changed the dynamic with Uncle Ben, and I say it's about time, but I'm sure that's being ignored by now.

Longshot absolutely sucked! I put that atrocious character out of my head! He may actually be worse than Bishop!

I remember talk about Gambit having a second mutation that made him even more like John Constantine, the ability to happen to be in the right place at the right time, and that some fans complained that Gambit was overshadowing Longshot. Something like that.....

And yeah, there was talk that his red eyes were a mutant power to charm people, but that was revealed to be a lie. The real reason for his red eyes was just revealed in that god-awful "X-Men:The End" comic.

"Didn't ANYONE writing an X-title from the late 80's on up have a single original though?!?"

You're going a little bit too far now, Mojo. You can rag on certain X-characters or X-story-lines, you can say that every writer from 1991-the present has been god awful (which isn't true), but DO NOT mess with Chris Claremont in his prime! Claremont is a senile old fool today, sure, and it can be argued that he was seriously losing his ability by the late-80s, but NO ONE messes with Chris Claremont's original run on "Uncanny X-Men" or "New Mutants"!

"About Wolvy not finding 30-40 degrees very warm...."

"When your piss freezes before it even touches the ground....."

"I want a new drug....."

Channeling the spirit of Huey Lewis & the News for Christmas this year?

The difference between men and women?

Women think about sex more than men, unless they have something to do, then they hardly ever think about sex.

Men think about sex all the time.

:lol:

"In the Shadow of No Towers"-God, this is a HUGE book. I have no idea where I'm going to put it!

I'm undecided about this book. It's a great read, but at the same time, I don't think I can recommend it to anyone, as it's a $20 book (which is quite flimsy, I felt it might fall apart at any moment while I read it) that takes the same amount of time to read as a monthly comic book.

I got it for half off, so I'm not very miffed.

If you want a good story about one man's reaction to Sept. 11th, 2001 in New York, in a unique format, that looks very classy, then you should buy this book. Otherwise, I'd highly suggest renting it.

There is a neat little essay in back discussing some of Spiegelman's favourite comic strips while growing up. It meant something to me, because my grandfather has talked about reading some of the strips discussed.

Gerry Conway bores me.

Peter David is ok, but doesn't have the charm of Jenkins.

Roger Stern was fine, but hardly the literate writer of a Jenkins.

Stan Lee is dated. Roy Thomas is too.

Nope, THE Spidey writer for me is, and will always be, Paul Jenkins. His run on "Spider Man" made me feel for the character in so many ways. I felt like I was kid discovering Stan Lee's "Amazing Spider Man" all over again, only it was now updated and written so that adults could be satisfied by it.